Squash Success 2022
Commonwealth Games
Adrian Waller – Commonwealth Silver medallist with Alison Waters. Mixed Doubles
Adrian Waller – Commonwealth Silver medallist with Daryl Selby. Men’s Doubles
Alison Waters – Commonwealth Silver medallist with Adrian Waller. Mixed Doubles
Alison Waters – Commonwealth Silver medallist with Sarah-Jane Perry. Women’s Doubles
Women’s European Club Champions
Alison Waters, Satomi Watanabe, Rana Ismail, Kace Bartley
Men’s 4th Place European Club Championship
Adrian Waller, Vini Rodrigues, Ben Coates, Hasnaat Farooqi, Paul Lindsay
Bath Cup Division 1 Champions
Steve Richardson, Lewis Walters, Ben Coates, Hasnaat Farooqi, Jack Turney
Bath Cup Division 2 Champions
Tom Bailey, Jojo Sheen, Satomi Watanabe, Rana Ismail, Dan Thomson, Ed Hopkins, Rudi Willemse, Michael Stewart
Queens Cup Champions
Vicky O’Donnell, Satomi Watanabe, Rana Ismail, Kim Hay, Elspeth Young, Liv Huxtable, Sophie Evans
European Club Squash Championships 2022
Roehampton Club are Women’s European Club Champions 2022
Our women’s squash team have won the European Squash Club Championships held in Italy from 14th to 17th September. Roehampton Club Men’s and Ladies’ National Champions teams represented England in the European Club Championship 2022 and the women’s team won the final to become the 2022 champions.
Squad: Satomi Watanabe, Alison Waters, Rana Ismail, Kace Bartley.
The Women faced six matches in four days as they played out a round robin group with a potential final against the 1 seed Mulhouse on Saturday morning.
3-0 wins against SC Sandweiler (Luxembourg) and Gigantos Fricktal (Switzerland) on Wednesday, was backup on Thursday with a win over De Vaart Notre Dame (Belguim).
Friday’s matches saw Roehampton Club face Skelleftea (Sweden) and Squash Italia (Italy) with the knowledge two wins would leave a straight head-to-head final on Saturday v Mulhouse (France). The team delivered winning both matches 3-0 on Friday to go into the final with a 100%-win record.
Saturday’s final produced the best match of the women’s draw in the tournament
First on court was Kace, playing at 3. Two very close games saw Kace take a 2-0 lead and we thought may have zapped her opponent of any will to fight on … we were wrong. The Mulhouse number 3 continued to run down ever ball and fight for every point. Kace strategically has a rest n the third game losing 11/5 and trying to save some energy for the next game. Now the French women had some momentum and was forcing errors from Kace, all of a sudden it was 2-2 and yours truly was wondering if Kace has anything left to give. A nervy start from both players in the deciding game saw the unforced errors count increase but most importantly both players were now fighting and giving everything. Kace was clearly the better squash player of the two but the Mulhouse player used her speed to counter as points ever shared evenly to start. As the score line started to get close to the business end Kace kept her cool, digging deep to hit some vital winners, taking the game and match 11/8. In a three-player team this win was vital.
Next on was team Captain and Roehampton Club number 1, Alison Waters, against the Mulhouse number 1 Sarah-Jane Perry. Co-incidentally Alison’s Commonwealth games ladies’ doubles partner. Both the players know each other so well from England training and Professional Tour matches and it was SJ who would go into the match favourite to win. Alison started so well not allowing SJ to settle with a mix of pace and attacking shots. Alison took the first game 11/7 and SJ looked worried. The second game SJ was now playing with more of a rhythm and moving Ali around the courts. Ali never gave up and the large crowd were treated to world class squash. SJ won the game 11/7. As similar pattern in the third game saw SJ open a lead and Ali could not quite get it back as potential winners would clip the tin by millimetres, SJ took the game 11/7. The fourth game again showed why both players have been top players in the world with world class movement and control. Ali fought to take the game, but SJ held her nerve to take the game and match 11/8.
This meant that after four days, and five previous group matches the Women’s title would be decided by the number 2 pairs of their Clubs. Roehampton Club’s Rana Ismail won a tough 5-set match on Friday and I’m sure there were some pre-match nerves. Both women hit the ball hard and cleanly and the first game would come down to who made fewer mistakes. Lucky for us Rana had learnt from the tough match the day before and stayed patient at the right time to win the first game 11/7. This gave her the confidence to take the second game more comfortably 11/3 and the fourth game although close and nervy Rana won 11/4 – winning the match and title for Roehampton Club.
Men’s squad: Adrian Waller, Vini Rodrigues, Ben Coates, Hasnaat Farooqi, Paul Lindsay
The Men had three group matches winning both on Wednesday 4-0. They then faced Grasshoper Club Zurich to see who would top the group, and a 3-1 win meant Roehampton Club would face SG Eder Matmaker Oberösterreich from Austria in the quarter final. Winning the first 3 of the 4 strings meant Roehampton Club won the match without having to play all strings.
The semi-final would see Roehampton Club face the number 2 seeds, Mulhouse from France. Mulhouse were very strong at strings 1 and 2 and they proved this again as they won both legs. The 4th string saw Mulhouse win two game which was all they required to win the match.
Roehampton Club faced New Squash Club Catania in the third / fourth play-off, this would prove to be the closest match of the tournament. With both teams winning two strings and the same number of games the match was decided on points. It was not to be for Roehampton Club as we lost out by 6 points overall but finished a very credible fourth overall.
Women’s Euro Squash Club results: https://bit.ly/3dq3ZWy
Men’s Euro Squash Club results: https://bit.ly/3LrwhMC
An amazing effort from all involved in Italy.
Paul Lindsay, Head Squash Pro – paul.lindsay@roehamptonclub.co.uk
